AlwaysAisle

The new airline, Northern Pacific Airways, based at ANC (Anchorage, AK) plans to start service by end of 2022 connecting the U.S. cities with Far East cities via ANC using 757-200 providing LCC (low coast carrier) fares. The press release said:

"The carrier hopes to launch with flights from Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York City, Orlando, and Ontario, California, as the first U.S. gateways, connecting via Anchorage to Seoul, South Korea, and airports in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, Japan."

That is interesting. If the price is right I may consider it. In old days I have done many JFK-ANC-SEL-NRT by KE (Korean Air) because KE was cheap. Brings back the memory of ANC fule stop.

Nagasaki Joe

The title of this thread initially confused me as I mistakenly thought it was Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CP Air), an airline that I flew a few times in the early 80s because they had the cheapest fares between the US east cost and Japan with connecting flights in Toronto and Vancouver. CP Air no longer exists but Northern Pacific Airways does sound interesting, especially the routing through Anchorage, which I've flown before. My first flight to Japan in 1974 was by charter plane and cost only $200, but those days are long gone.

Q Shoe Guy

$200 in 1974 was = to $1,131.04 in todays dollars. You can get a non-stop return to many US hubs for less today. I would hope that this LCC airline is pricing a oneway closer to $200 in todays $.

FlyerBeek

Yes, this brings back many fond memories of my first trips to Asia in the 1990s flying JFK-ANC-SEL on KE. Will be very interesting to see if Northern Pacific can make this model work. I've got my doubts.

-FlyerBeek

Nagasaki Joe

Good point. I was wondering what that might be and guessed without checking that it might around $800 in today's dollars at most. I'm not sure what you referenced to calculate it but I'll take you at your word. If your calculation is accurate, it makes one wonder how $200 was considered a low cost fare back then, unless my memory is inaccurate, which I don't think is the case here. BTW, to answer a previous questions of yours, no I'm not from Sasebo.

AlwaysAisle

Have you mentioned CP Air? Yes, CP Air did have cheap fares, and do you think I would have missed on cheap fare? Passenger Service Facility Charge is now 2000 yen!


On the previous post, PanAm NYC-TYO one way fare in 1972 was $516, West Coat-Tokyo was $390 ($3,442 and $2,601 respectively in today's $). Airline deregulation did bring air fare down, which made air travel more affordable and many people enjoy international travel today. Back in 1972 not all people could travel internationally and $200 was cheap when PanAm was charging $516/$390 for Tokyo.

Mwenenzi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pacific_Airways

Have they got any money? A CV19 pandemic is not a good time to start a new airline
Or just an old (leased?) B757?
Associated with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravn_Alaska

Nagasaki Joe

Actually, the $200 fare I paid for the chartered flight was a one-way fare from the west coast, so that's nearly half the price of the PanAm flight. It's interesting because, as I recall, you usually needed to show a paid round-trip ticket (or at least an onward ticket out of Japan) to enter Japan (and other countries as well), so in hindsight, I'm a little surprised I was able to enter the country.

Q Shoe Guy

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inf...974?amount=200

You can use an inflation calculator as above. Not speculative at all. Personally, I still hadn't flown on a plane in 1974 .

5khours

Data Point - I flew LAX <> HND round trip in 1975 for $400. Stopped in ANC for fuel on the westbound leg. The 707 burned about twice as much fuel per passenger mile as modern aircraft, which is one of the reasons prices were relatively high compared to today.

757FO

They have some serious headwinds in-front of them, but I truly hope this venture works.

c1ue

Seems like an interesting idea except that China and Japan both have severe foreign traveler restrictions.
Not the least bit clear that this is going to change any time soon since their "prevention" strategy will not end soon given that the US and UK (And at least parts of Europe) are doing "Let 'er Rip" COVID strategies.
And this doesn't even count the extreme likelihood of another variant popping up.
This is the most likely reason why airport slots are opening up re: flights to Asia.

c1ue

Joe's link probably references the real one: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has an inflation calculator.
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

AlwaysAisle

I understand that timing of the startup does not look ideal, given the current pandemic situation. However, I do hope them well. New entrant to the market creating healthy competition is a good thing. If we start listing names of previous airline startups, then likely a list of failures is longer than a list of successes. But who would have thought intra Texas start-up flying Dallas-San Antonio-Houston triangle with few 737s has grown to today's Southwest Airlines, I remember many naysayers when jetBlue started at JFK saying JFK will not work for low cost carriers. Icelandic air captured a niche market on the U.S.-Europe routes via Reykjavik although many airlines have non-stop flights between the U.S. and European cities. Northern Pacific Airways looks as going after the same over Pacific.

rustykettel

From your TG picture in the NRT thread, note the next gate departure :